Get images you can (legally) use without any charge for your next project

Google Image Search is a powerful tool that allows users to find a wide variety of high quality images on the internet. From adorable kittens to stunning landscapes, it's a go-to resource for individuals conducting research, social media posting, graphic design, gathering data for machine learning, and many others. However, not all images found on the internet are free to use without restrictions. Typically, when you search for images on Google, the results may include licensed images from stock photo websites. These images cannot be used directly. For royalty-free images, you have to look at Creative Commons licenses (CC License) label, it can be great alternative for your commercial use.

Understanding Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that provides a range of free, legally sound copyright licenses for creators to offer their work with certain permissions. These licenses allow content creators to retain some rights while permitting others to use their work under specified usage rights. The key components of Creative Commons licenses include:

Attribution (BY): You must give appropriate credit to the original creator.
Non-Commercial (NC): You can use the work for non-commercial purposes only.
No Derivatives (ND): You cannot modify or create derivative works based on the original.
Share Alike (SA): If you remix, transform, or build upon the original work, you must distribute your contributions under the same license.

Why Use Creative Commons Images?

Using Creative Commons images can be beneficial in several ways:

Legal Clarity: Creative Commons licenses provide clear usage guidelines, ensuring you are not infringing on copyright laws.
Cost-Efficient: Many Creative Commons images are available for free, making them an excellent choice for those on a budget.
Community Support: By using Creative Commons images, you support a community of creators who value the sharing and reuse of creative content.

In summary, a Creative Commons license (CC License) allow you to use the creative assets for commercial use without copyright restrictions.

Using SerpApi's Google Images API

Here is the original URL to search for images with Creative Commons license in Google https://www.google.com/search?q=Coffee&oq=Coffee&hl=en&gl=us&tbm=isch&tbs=il:cl

The key parameter is tbs=il:cl, it is a filter in Google Image Search to show only images with Creative Commons license.

Using SerpApi's Google Images API you can get the JSON result. You can check out the Playground to get a sense of what is happening. And here is the entire script in Python to retrieve the result for coffee:

from serpapi import GoogleSearch

# Get the API key from https://serpapi.com/manage-api-key
SERPAPI_API_KEY = "SERPAPI_API_KEY"

search = GoogleSearch({
    "engine": "google_images",
    "q": "coffee",
    "tbs": "il:cl",
    "device": "desktop",
    "api_key": SERPAPI_API_KEY
})
result = search.get_dict()
print(result)

Make sure to run pip install google-search-results to install SerpApi's python package.

Sample results:

{
  ...
  "images_results": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "thumbnail": "https://serpapi.com/searches/652df85dca968f24e599ce52/images/17875db7a19098c3309037ee616250cf085eabd221025784f9db2e8039da7693.jpeg",
      "license_details_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/",
      "related_content_id": "aGhXQ0pydURmT1RDVk1cIixcIjJ0MWRnQVNod2tGQXZN",
      "serpapi_related_content_link": "https://serpapi.com/search.json?engine=google_images_related_content&gl=us&hl=en&q=coffee&related_content_id=aGhXQ0pydURmT1RDVk1cIixcIjJ0MWRnQVNod2tGQXZN",
      "source": "CoffeeGeek",
      "source_logo": "https://serpapi.com/searches/652df85dca968f24e599ce52/images/17875db7a19098c3309037ee616250cfa79af27fce5183e0a5bc07441fdd7061.png",
      "title": "How to Make an Americano » CoffeeGeek",
      "link": "https://www.coffeegeek.com/guides/americano/",
      "tag": "Licensable",
      "original": "https://www.coffeegeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/americano-1.jpg",
      "original_width": 2400,
      "original_height": 1600,
      "is_product": false
    },
    {
      "position": 2,
      "thumbnail": "https://serpapi.com/searches/652df85dca968f24e599ce52/images/17875db7a19098c375a29c9efb0404e5c3eb6f89330f8e4c1e0b18e85f7b91a0.jpeg",
      "license_details_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en",
      "related_content_id": "UlVQMlNjTVlBcFJ6aE1cIixcIlVYVTJCN2dRS19YMWxN",
      "serpapi_related_content_link": "https://serpapi.com/search.json?engine=google_images_related_content&gl=us&hl=en&q=coffee&related_content_id=UlVQMlNjTVlBcFJ6aE1cIixcIlVYVTJCN2dRS19YMWxN",
      "source": "Wikipedia",
      "source_logo": "https://serpapi.com/searches/652df85dca968f24e599ce52/images/17875db7a19098c375a29c9efb0404e59b3d8ea3419e5de0e6ec175cbc6db319.png",
      "title": "Coffee roasting - Wikipedia",
      "link": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_roasting",
      "tag": "Licensable",
      "original": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Miele%2C_IFA_2018%2C_Berlin_%28P1070083%29.jpg",
      "original_width": 3000,
      "original_height": 4000,
      "is_product": false
    },
    {
      "position": 3,
      "thumbnail": "https://serpapi.com/searches/652df85dca968f24e599ce52/images/17875db7a19098c36b39e22b58bc824666b3b283b6ea947b4defdfca02018676.jpeg",
      "license_details_url": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
      "related_content_id": "RFFfUkFMNm5najNobE1cIixcIkdZb1dRbG9ZSkZkd2hN",
      "serpapi_related_content_link": "https://serpapi.com/search.json?engine=google_images_related_content&gl=us&hl=en&q=coffee&related_content_id=RFFfUkFMNm5najNobE1cIixcIkdZb1dRbG9ZSkZkd2hN",
      "source": "Rawpixel",
      "source_logo": "https://serpapi.com/searches/652df85dca968f24e599ce52/images/17875db7a19098c36b39e22b58bc8246d9107396ea7f2f0be04feda250835935.png",
      "title": "Coffee Background Images | Free iPhone & Zoom HD Wallpapers & Vectors -  rawpixel",
      "link": "https://www.rawpixel.com/search/coffee%20background",
      "tag": "Licensable",
      "original": "https://images.rawpixel.com/image_social_landscape/cHJpdmF0ZS9zdGF0aWMvaW1hZ2VzL3dlYnNpdGUvMjAyMi0wNS91cHdrNjE3MTMwODYtd2lraW1lZGlhLWltYWdlLWpvYjU3Mi0xLmpwZw.jpg?s=a3-2i8GlVWuSVxJJKrvenasEiHVGHjlD_X5li1YyOCo",
      "original_width": 1000,
      "original_height": 563,
      "is_product": false
    },
    ...
  ]
}

The benefits of using SerpApi is that it's a quicker approach and more reliable. Our API will bypass blocking from the search engines and you don't have to maintain your own parser.

Documentation

Google Images API

Conclusion

Google Images is like a huge image library that contains rich high-quality photos that can be fair use or non-commercial use. We learn about how to filter the result by Creative Commons License (CC License) and it is also wise to consult again with the copyright owner for the image license.

Alternatively, you can look into free stock photos website like unsplash, pexels, pixabay and etc. These stock photo sites offer copyright-free images and their quality as great as stock images. Do note that, you will want to double check on the images you download before use to avoid any possibility of copyright infringement.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

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